Travel Documents 99: Foxhunt

By: Rem Wigmore

Genre: solarpunk, social change, cultural change, cli-fi

The Dust Cover Copy

In a lush solarpunk future, plants have stripped most of the poison from the air and bounty hunters keep resource hoarders in check. Orfeus only wants to be a travelling singer, famed and adored. She has her share of secrets, but she’s no energy criminal, so why does a bounty hunter want her dead? Not just any bounty hunter but the Wolf, most fearsome of all the Order of the Vengeful Wild. Orfeus will call in every favor she has to find out, seeking answers while clinging to her pride and fending off the hunters of the Wild. But she isn’t the only one at risk: every misstep endangers the enemies she turns into allies, and the allies she brings into danger. There are worse monsters than the Wolf hiding in this new green world.

The Scene

Worldbuilding

Set in a gorgeously imagined world, a new culture has grown up out of the wreckage of the past, one that uses the climate disasters of our time as warning stories for their children and swear words for their adults. It’s a fascinating world with its own cultural tensions; mainly, between communities and their approaches to history and technology, including human modification. To the reader’s relief, many of today’s tensions are long gone; we’ve grown out of most forms of bigotry, including racism and homophobia. Reading a story that lets us see that possible future comes as a balm in the days we live now. But that doesn’t mean this world is safe; to make sure the terrible greed and imbalance of the past never creeps into our culture again, a drastic measure has been taken. A crew of what amounts to socially accepted vigilantes who call themselves the Wild Hunt have taken on the names of predators, and the duty of punishing those who break the laws of mutual care, ecological stewardship and social responsibility. Terminally.

Interweaving children’s stories, journal entries, some really cool tech and little bits of legend with the main narrative gives this story the sense of a living, breathing world. One that has taken a step back from the brink of self-inflicted destruction, and yet contains the fallibility of a human existence.

The Crowd

Characterization

Meet Orpheus. She’s sassy. Smart. A smart-ass, a lot of the time. She’s trans, and she was raised in a world that never told her there was anything wrong with that. She’s what we’d politely call a lothario (cough horndog) and she’s always up for some fun. Or some trouble. Whatever you’ve got on hand. Oh, and she’s a rockstar. No, I mean literally. She’s a musician living on her songcraft and getting people of all sorts to swoon over her recordings.

Our spunky protagonist is surrounded by a fun and fascinating cast of friends, frenemies, neighbors, and acquaintances that all have a touch of life to them.

I did feel that some of the characters verged on the tropey, especially those whom Orpheus is less than friendly with. But that’s evened out by the characters who have been well-depicted, and sometimes a nice trope can be a treat.

Writing Style

Clever and crafty as Orpheus’s namesake, this storytelling is evocative at the sentence level and witty at the arc level. It’s a pleasure to read. And the main character’s take on events makes everything that much funnier, wittier, and more engaging.

The Moves

Plot

While I really enjoyed the setup for the story and most of its interactions, I have to confess: the antagonists got on my nerves. They were just. So. Flat. Their motivations were generally along the lines of ‘because I like doing it!’ in one case, and a very vague ‘because I must and I’m playing the long game’ on the other. Given the gravity of the situations involved…. it just didn’t sit right for me. Orpheus makes several truly bone-headed decisions throughout the story, but in her case, they work perfectly given her personality. You’re exasperated with her, but you’re rooting for her every step of the way. Unfortunately, when the antagonists make their moves, you have no such insight to feel their decisions have a similar level of motivation and emotion behind them. I really felt that the antagonists should have more backing up life-and-death choices than ‘because I want to!’ and ‘you’ll understand when you’re older’. But aside from this issue, the interpersonal elements and a certain slow-burning ember of a possible romance in books to come make Foxhunt a pleasant read all the same. In the end you get, if not satisfaction, at least the hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Overall Rating

A fun summer read with lots of things I’d like to see happen…and a few I definitely don’t. Enjoy!